Winnie Mandela Loses Bid to Dismiss Charges : South Africa: State is ordered to clarify its indictment. Police clash with blacks in streets outside courthouse.

A motion to dismiss Winnie Mandela’s kidnaping and assault charges for being too vague was rejected Tuesday by the trial judge, who said the black liberation leader’s wife has been “fairly advised of the case against her.”

But Justice M. S. Stegmann, sitting in Rand Supreme Court, agreed with Mandela’s attorneys that the indictment had become “diffusely scattered” by amendments made since the trial opened Monday. He ordered the state’s attorneys to make several additions and changes in the indictment, as requested by the defense.

After a second day of legal wrangling over the wording of the charges against Mandela and her three co-defendants, the judge adjourned the case until Monday. Mandela, the 54-year-old wife of Nelson Mandela, the deputy president of the African National Congress, is free on her personal recognizance.

Outside the downtown Johannesburg courthouse, police officers clashed briefly with Mandela supporters Tuesday, and several people were slightly injured. The incident occurred at the end of the morning court session, when about 100 well-wishers followed the Mandelas across the street to an attorney’s office.

After the Mandelas entered the office building, the crowd remained in the street, blocking one lane of traffic as they sang black liberation songs. Police gave the crowd four minutes to disperse. Three minutes later, two dozen officers with riot batons charged the assembly and beat blacks as they fled through the streets.

Each of the defendants faces four charges of kidnaping and four of assault stemming from the abduction and beating of four men at one of Mrs. Mandela’s Soweto homes in December, 1988. The state contends that Mandela ordered her associates to abduct the men from a Methodist Church halfway house in Soweto and later helped beat them.

One of those abducted, 14-year-old Stompie Seipei, was beaten to death and his body was found in a field a week later. Jerry Richardson, the 41-year-old leader of Mrs. Mandela’s former retinue of bodyguards, has been sentenced to death for Seipei’s murder. The three survivors, who testified at Richardson’s trial last year, are expected to be the prosecution’s key witnesses.

The case has drawn wide attention because of fears that a guilty verdict against Nelson Mandela’s wife, who now occupies three leadership positions in the ANC and its affiliated organizations, could hamper the peace negotiations between the ANC and the government.

Nelson Mandela, who once practiced law in these same courtrooms, attended the trial both Monday and Tuesday, taking a seat in the center of the front row of the public gallery. He has conferred at length with defense attorneys during breaks in the trial.

Mrs. Mandela’s legal team, led by veteran political trial attorney George Bizos, and lawyers for the other defendants argued Tuesday that the wording of the charges against their clients was so vague that it was impossible to present a proper defense. They asked that the entire indictment be thrown out.

The judge denied the motion to quash the indictment but ordered the state, among other things, to amend its charges against Mandela to clearly show whether it was alleging that she knew that her van and driver were being used in the kidnaping, whether she was living at the house during the two weeks the men were detained there and whether she knew that the men were being held against their will.

Also, Stegmann ordered the state to identify other people who had participated in the beatings at Mandela’s home and “state what each individual may have done.”

“It is quite fair and reasonable to expect the accused’s legal advisers to be able to grasp and understand the case against each of them and enable them to prepare their defense,” Stegmann said.

Four of the eight original defendants have skipped bail, and warrants have been issued for their arrest.

One of the defendants at the trial is Mrs. Mandela’s driver, John Morgan, 61, who is accused of participating in the abduction and being present during the beatings. Although the state says Morgan did not join in the beatings, it is charging him with assault under the South African legal doctrine known as “common purpose.” That doctrine allows courts to convict defendants if they shared a “common purpose” with those who actually committed the crimes.

The other defendants are Xoliswa Falati, 36, of Soweto, and her 18-year-old daughter, Nompumelelo. They are accused of helping Richardson during the abduction by pointing out the four men at the church house and also of being present during the beatings.